forsv: potpourri of thoughts

jest for pun (May'05)

May'05 BlogThoughts

Every calendar's days are numbered.

Publication is a self-invasion of privacy. -Marshall McLuhan (1911 - 1980) Canadian writer and theoretician.

History is the short trudge from Adam to atom. - Leonard Louis Levinson

You can kill ten of my men for every one I kill of yours, but even at those odds, you will lose and I will win. - Ho Chi Minh to the French, late 1940s

Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the U.S. media. - Noam Chomsky

inspiration is everywhere

Coffee isn't my cup of tea. - Samuel Goldwyn

food for travel

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. - Arthur C. Clarke

from your lips to God’s ears.

An idle mind is ........ the best way to relax.

tasneem khalil: standing for my father - reza kibria

Tasneem Khalil, a friend and journalist from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Endorses and advocates Libertarian Socialism and Free/Open Software & Publication. Subjects of interest primarily include Culture, Humanity, Alternative Media, Propaganda and Politics.

Shah AMS Kibria, a Member of the Parliament of Bangladesh and former Finance Minister of the country, was brutally assassinated in a grenade attack on January 27th 2005 in his constituency, the town of Habiganj in Sylhet. Reza Kibria, an internationally acclaimed economist, is a core member of the 'Blue for Peace' movement that is now demanding an end to such political killings in Bangladesh. For more info http://www.sams-kibria.org

[this interview with reza kibria — son of former bangladesh finance minister sams kibria, assassinated in january — was to appear in the debut issue of a weekly newsmagazine. unfortunately, for unstated reasons, all the copies of the magazine (except a few preview copies) were sieged hours before the debut newsstand hit (at this stage, it is not convenient for me to spell out more detail account of the episode).

as i believe this interview contains valuable information and opinion that needs public attention and analysis, i am resorting to an internet distribution. i am inviting concerned readers to freely redistribute this piece (and releasing this under a creative commons license).
— tasneem khalil]

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China's Technology Strategy

San Jose Mercury News compares China and the US

They graduate four times as many engineers as we do.

They lavish generous tax breaks on tech firms.

They support local manufacturers.

They don't respect intellectual property.

They, of course, refers to China. And the gripes from Silicon Valley business leaders capture in stark and accurate terms the key underpinnings of the growing tech rivalry between the United States and China.

None of these things happened by accident. They happened because China has something that the United States lacks and badly needs: a national technology policy.

The country long ago made a strategic decision that technology was paramount to its development and put in place a systematic policy to create a world-class technology sector. It sometimes runs roughshod over trade agreements or international law, which is wrong. But on the whole, the policy is simply smart.

And it's just plain dumb for the United States to think it can compete in the tech race against China and other nations without a technology policy of its own.

In China, the importance of tech is articulated at the highest levels of government. ``Science and technology are the decisive factors in the competition of comprehensive national strength,'' Premier Wen Jiabao said just last month.

When will we wake up in India?

CIA war game simulates major Internet attack

The CIA is conducting a cyber-war game this week geared to simulate a major Internet attack by enemy computer hackers, an intelligence official said Thursday.

Dubbed "Silent Horizon," the three-day unclassified exercise is based on a scenario set five years in the future and involves participants from government and the private sector.

"These are people who could likely be affected or enlisted in a real situation," the intelligence official said.

"Its goal is to help the United States recognize indicators of a large-scale cyber attack."

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lessons from history

Flying Snakes: New Videos Reveal How They Do It

You might not think snakes need any more tools in their box of fright tactics. However, some of these slithering reptiles are dramatic flyers.

Jake Socha of the University of Chicago has been studying snakes' ability to act like birds for eight years. Today he revealed just how good they are at winging it.

"Despite their lack of wing-like appendages, flying snakes are skilled aerial locomotors," he said.

Like a Frisbee

Snakes join birds, insects, bats, squirrels and even ants in the realm of aerial prowess. So just how do they do it?

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New Award (attempts to) challenge the Nobel Prize

$1 million science awards created
Kavli Prizes for astrophysics, neuroscience, nanotech

OSLO, Norway - Nobel science prizes will face a "more daring" rival beginning in 2008, with $1 million awards for research into everything from the Big Bang to the brain, a Norwegian-born philanthropist says.

Fred Kavli, a physicist who left Norway in 1955 with $300 and turned it into a $340 million fortune in California, said he was setting up three prizes for astrophysics, neuroscience and nanotechnology, the use of molecule-sized devices.

Kavli already funds 10 science institutes — nine at U.S. universities including Stanford, Yale and Cornell, and one at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. Three scientists linked to the institutes won Nobel prizes last year.

"We want to spread the word of science and get more students interested. ... In many parts of the world that's a problem, from Norway to the United States," Kavli told Reuters on Monday.

"I think we'll be more daring," than the Nobel awards, he said, because they would seek to reward scientific breakthroughs more quickly than the conservative Nobel system.

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Grocery Store Wars

Enjoy heh heh heh...

42 Below Vodka

Aussie/NZ satire at so many levels.

Broadsword calling Danny Boy

Channel 4's 100 Greatest War Films as voted for by their (generally more clued-up than average) viewership has plenty for you to disagree with, but much to recommend. Filmsite.org has a history of war films (as does Berkeley) for the completists among you. There are more war films from and about Vietnam and Indochina than you can shake a bayonet at (see also the 1999 NYT article, Apocalypse Then: Vietnam Marketing War Films to learn a little about the Vietnamese government's 1960s and 70s archive of war film). The [British] national archives have archived film from pre-WWI to the Cold War.